Slow progress

When I went to Mom and Dad’s (Grandma and Grandpa Kline) in Chappell Hill a week ago I told Mom I would need to take a small portion of the roof to work on because I am pretty slow. I did manage to get a good bit done – especially on the portion of the roof that was leaking – but it took me hours to accomplish. That slow pace I keep has truly manifested itself in the ongoing projects here. On the positive side, I called Grandma Kline to see if the repairs I had made actually made a difference. One roof leak was eliminated but the second, more troubling one, still persists in a much attenuated form.  I will have to work on that next time I am there – which could be soon.

I am making very slow progress on the coop building. Of course I am working by myself and am constantly being called away to help Mama on one thing or another as well as having to make repairs on the tools I am using. Yesterday I had to take the guard off of the compound miter saw because it was too loose to continue to keep using it. After I got it off, tightened and reassembled and put back all the tools I had to get for that chore I had used up nearly an hour. Those things slow me up – but they are all part of life at the moment.

I also had to take time to get the truck and tractor out of the pasture where I had both of them stuck since Saturday. I had bought some more two by fours for the walls I am building on the coop and tried to get them to the coop via the roadway through the middle paddock. That worked only to the point where the ground, softened by five inches of rain, was too soft for me to go further.

When the truck was stuck I got the tractor out of the barn, loaded the lumber onto the forks and put it by the coop in the pile I have there. Since the tractor had done so well I drove it to where the truck was stuck and pulled the truck out of the very soft ground of the roadway but in doing so, I buried the front wheels of the tractor in a soft spot. So there they sat until yesterday evening the ground had dried enough to get them both free.

I feel a sense of urgency about getting the coop finished because Mama has thirty young chickens that need that spaced as soon as I can have it available. They are all getting large and will soon outgrow the cages we have them in. Of course, money is the issue. Sadly, it is required to get the materials I need to get the job done, but the Lord has provided so far. I am buying only a limited amount at a time because it feels better to spend smaller amounts at a time and I am using up what I have before getting more. That too takes time.

While we were at Lowe’s yesterday Mama and I agreed on the siding and the interior wall materials so I am at the point of moving forward to get those. By tomorrow I should have the rafters on and be ready for the roof so sheeting the outside would be the next step. If we can accumulate the materials I could have the project finished in a couple weeks.

Meanwhile I am honing my resume, getting some requisite work done for the employment agency hired on our behalf and searching for available job postings that are more than a manager at McDonald’s, Braum’s or Sonic. Such is the world we live in today.

Grandma called this morning to confirm that they are on their way here. I have mixed emotions about that; mostly positive.